Roses in December
by luvscharlie
Summary: Molly Prewett and Arthur Weasley's love has stood the trials and tribulations of two wars and the everyday ups and downs brought about by life. It has endured and deserves to be told. Let's go back to the beginning. Molly/Arthur; Molly/Lucius


**Roses in December **by luvscharlie

**Prologue: Red**

* * *

_"God gave us memories so that we might have roses in December."_-- Sir James Matthew Barrie

* * *

I was fourteen years old when I decided there was no other girl for me. Molly Prewett was the only one I had eyes for. I set my sights on her and never strayed from my goal… regardless of what she says.

She was sitting outside Florean Fortesque's Ice Cream Parlour that hot August day, having been left in charge of her twin brothers. Those two, even at ten years old, were a rather difficult pair. They were called the Terrible Twosome by family members and in my opinion, it was a nickname well earned. Fabian and Gideon Prewett did have a penchant for creating chaos wherever they went. No doubt about that.

But Molly was the picture of decorum, even at fourteen. She did her best to ignore her brothers sitting at the outdoor table with her shapely legs crossed, back ramrod straight and looking every bit the proper young lady as she sat there reading her book.

I heard her brothers plotting to nick some Sickles from their sister's coin purse for an ice cream. I considered telling her. In fact, I was just starting over to her table, when it became abundantly clear that Molly Prewett was no delicate flower. I saw a freckled hand slide up from beneath the table and feel its way around blindly for her purse.

Her composure never faltered. She simply picked up the book she had been so studiously reading and brought it crashing down on five freckled digits.

"OOOOOOWWWWWW!"

I had to cover my mouth to keep from sniggering openly at the boy's wounded howl. A freckled-face to match the hand came screaming into view from his former hiding spot beneath the table. His twin was laughing and pointing at him.

Molly, always the lady, grabbed him by the front of the shirt and pulled him forward so that her face was inches from him. Her mouth turned up in a sneer so vicious that even I might have been afraid of her if I were the boy. She reached forward and grabbed the laughing twin by his shirt as well, and his jovial chuckling ceased at once. I wasn't able to tell them apart, so whether it was Gideon or Fabian, I wasn't sure.

"Gideon," she screeched, "if either of you ever try that again, I will hold you down and pull your spleen through your nose."

I watched the boys' eyes go wide. "But, Fabian did it! Why are you yelling at me?"

Fabian backed away, clearly the smarter of the two. I would certainly have put distance between Molly and myself, were I him.

"Because he always does what you tell him to do," she said.

I watched Gideon's eyes widen a bit more. Perhaps he was shocked that she was wise to his manipulation. But it was his next words that had me shaking my head and wondering if the foolish child had a death wish.

"I'm not scared of you."

_I was!_

"Mum says if you use your wand outside of Hogwarts something bad will happen," the one called Gideon (though I would henceforth think of him as the one who did not even have the brains Merlin bestowed upon Kneazles) continued.

"Is that right?" she asked.

_Run, boy. Run._

She pushed her chair back from the table.

The idiot boy, as I'd come to think of him, stood there with his arms crossed defiantly over his chest, but looking apprehensively at her wand.

Molly struck before he knew what hit him. A wand was clearly not necessary for what she had in mind. She grabbed a handful of ginger hair and the poor kid was over her knee with his stark white, freckled bum on display for all of Diagon Alley as he received a spanking unlike any I had ever seen. He screamed, flailed, kicked and screamed some more in an attempt to get away. It was futile. She held tight and did not let up until his bum was as bright red as his hair and he was swearing to never, ever put his brother up to anything remotely naughty again.

All of Diagon Alley, it seemed, had stopped to watch the show, and I noted that when she finally let him up his face was as red as his bum from embarrassment.

I might have even felt a bit sorry for him… until…

"You just try that again. I'm gonna tell Mum."

She lunged for him.

He squealed like a little girl and put his feet into motion. The _only_ smart thing I'd seen him do all day.

Molly went back to reading her book as though nothing had happened. I walked inside and returned a moment later with an ice cream cone in my hand. I walked over and put it under her nose.

"Arthur," she said, looking up from her book. "I didn't know you worked here."

"Yeah, Mr. Fortesque lets me work here during summer holidays to earn some extra Galleons." I'm sure my ears were turning red, perhaps even as red as Gideon Prewett's well spanked bum. They had an annoying habit of doing so whenever I was around a girl I thought was pretty. I was just about to hand her the ice cream cone when _he_ walked up.

"Molly, your mother sent me to bring you home. She said something about your brothers and a spectacle you were making of yourself."

I watched her chest rise and fall in a deep sigh, not that I was looking at her chest of course. I was—well—that's really not the point.

Molly smiled at Lucius Malfoy and it turned my stomach. He and I had hated one another since our first day at Hogwarts. Molly insisted over and over again that he was a nice boy, if one took the time to get to know him. After all, she had said, she should know. They had grown up next door to one another all their lives.

Lucius tilted his chin at me in a condescending greeting that suited all I knew of him. "You're dripping," he said, indicating the ice cream cone in my hand with a sneer.

I couldn't very well give it to her now. I simply turned and binned it, then went back to my duties of sweeping up the cobblestones as she gathered her books. I was surprised to feel her hand tap my shoulder.

"So, I'll see you at King's Cross Station in two weeks?" she asked with a tilt of her head and a smile that stole my breath and made my ears go hot. _Stupid ears._

I nodded, then watched the two of them mount Lucius' broom and fly away, with her holding onto his waist in a way that I did not much care for.

* * *

I wanted to be able to give you my two Sickles worth, but the fact is this is Molly's story, and I'll let her tell it.

However, from that day forward, I was smitten, and for the next several years, I think my ears stayed a perpetual shade of red. Pretty girls will do that to a bloke, and my Molly was quite the beauty back then, just as she is now.

Fin.


End file.
